A data breach occurs in which an outside individual obtains your company’s employees’ W-2 forms including social security numbers, addresses, and salary information. As a result, your company notifies all affected employees, explains what occurred, and offers a complimentary two-year membership to a service that helps detect misuse of personal information. Is your company liable
New York AG Announces SHIELD Act
On November 2nd, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced his proposal of the SHIELD Act – Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act – a bill that would heighten data security requirements for companies and better protect New York residents from data breaches of
Delaware: The Latest State to Amend its Data Breach Notification Law
Delaware joins the growing number of states that recently amended their data breach notification law. On August 17th, Delaware amended its data breach notification law with House Bill 180, the first significant change since 2005, effective 240 days after enactment (on or about April 14, 2018). 
Delaware maintains the state law trend
New Mexico Enacts Data Breach Notification Act
On April 6, 2017, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed HB 15, making New Mexico the 48th state to enact a data breach notification law. The law has an effective date of June 16, 2017 and follows the same general structure of many of the breach notification laws in other states.
Importantly, the definition of
Virginia Responds to W-2 Phishing Scams with First of Its Kind Notification Requirement
As previously highlighted, in early February, the IRS issued a warning to all employers regarding the resurgence of a W-2 based cyber scam. Since the IRS warning, this type of scam has taken numerous victims. On February 15, 2017, Virginia Wesleyan College released a notice stating that the 2016 W-2 tax form information of
DoD Updates Cyber Incident Reporting Rule
On October 4, 2016, a final rule was published in the Federal Register which implements statutory requirements for Department of Defense (DoD) contractors and subcontractors to report cyber incidents that result in an actual or potentially adverse effect on a covered contractor information system or covered defense information residing therein, or on a contractor’s ability
Pokémon GO – Next Stop: Regulation & Litigation
As everyone is aware, the Pokémon GO craze has taken the world by storm in the past month. Reports estimate there have been over 75 million downloads of the digital game since the program became available on July 6. Apple has not issued any concrete numbers, but has confirmed that it was the most downloaded
5 Practice Tips for Law Firms as Data Breach Spotlight Swings Their Way
While data breach incidents affecting the entertainment, retail, healthcare, and financial industries have garnered more attention in past years, the data breach spotlight recently shifted to law firms.
This shift was triggered by media coverage of the breach and leak of the Panama Papers, and by reports that, in 2015, hackers breached the networks
Illinois Enacts Amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act
Last month, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law a number of amendments to the State’s Personal Information Protection Act (“PIPA”) that expand the definition of protected personal information and increase certain data breach notification requirements. The amendments, highlighted below, take effect January 1, 2017.
Currently, “personal information” is limited to an individual’s first name
Employers Beware of Phishing Scams
On April 20, 2016, a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of California against Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. The lawsuit was initiated by a former employee whose W-2 was allegedly disclosed as part of a phishing scam that occurred in late March 2016 amid reports that Sprouts’ employees